So the second day in Brazil we went to a city named Maraba, it was about 30 miles from a mine called Serra Palata which translated means naked mountain. Actually, when I said this to a guy who spoke Portuguese he had no idea what the words Serra Palata meant so maybe this is made up. Anyway, I was told it was named this because the mountains have no trees on them, after being there I came to the conclusion that no trees means something different in the Amazon than it does in Utah.
We ate at a restaurant on a boat on the river. We ordered at about 7 pm and the food was delivered at about 9:30. In my 10 days in Brazil I came to realize that this was the norm, you sit down and talk for hours at a time every night, so food delivered 2 ½ hours after you order is no big deal. I will say that every night was perfect temperature and beautiful so maybe that is why.
As soon as the sun went down the bats came out. Not a bat here or a bat there but thousands and tens of thousands of bats. They were all following the same path, over the roof of a house towards the river. I was standing on the river’s edge but on a boardwalk about 20 feet above the water. The bats were coming straight at me and then turning at the last second to miss me on both sides. As soon as the bats made it over the railing above the river they dropped straight down and skimmed the water. It truly was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
As soon as the sun went down the bats came out. Not a bat here or a bat there but thousands and tens of thousands of bats. They were all following the same path, over the roof of a house towards the river. I was standing on the river’s edge but on a boardwalk about 20 feet above the water. The bats were coming straight at me and then turning at the last second to miss me on both sides. As soon as the bats made it over the railing above the river they dropped straight down and skimmed the water. It truly was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
The next day we go to Serra Palata, the road there was amazing. This was a highway but every half mile or so you had to stop and dodge the potholes big enough to swallow the truck. At one bridge we crossed they put a stop sign in a hole that if you ran over would let your truck fall in the river I am not exaggerating there was no asphalt or anything, just a huge hole that went down to a big river. So we get on the dirt road and instead of being jammed into the backseat of the truck with three other guys I decided to ride in the back. As we pulled into the village I noticed that there were no buildings that would meet code or be considered livable in the US. Interestingly enough, almost all the “houses” have satellite dishes and they all point almost straight up because of the proximity to the equator sorry, just an interesting little detail that really has nothing to do with the story.
As we drove into this extremely poor village, the men started running out and yelling something. I found out they were saying, “It begins”. They were thinking now that the Americans were here we would start the mine back up and give them a job and life would be fine. So we ate lunch at the only house with a cement floor and the nice women fed us more food than they probably eat in a week. I again having more guts than brains told Newton (our Brazilian guide) that I would eat anything a Brazilian would eat. So my plate got loaded up with quail eggs, armadillo, deer (look like big dogs) but nothing all that crazy. I was worried that it may turn out like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with monkey brains and spiders and eyeballs but I did give them enough time to prepare those things so I got off easy.
The woman cooking and serving us lunch kept just piling on the food. It was hot and humid and we had been hiking and checking out the mine and property and I wasn’t in the mood for a huge lunch. I started saying I’m full, no more, but it was in English so it wasn’t working. My next thought was to use the international sign language of the ok symbol. I didn’t just do it with one hand, I did it with both while smiling and looking her in the eyes. I later learned that the ok symbol is not “international”, in Brazil it is similar to flipping the bird, only worse. The circle your fingers form represents the place food exits your body. So here I was giving this nice old lady that cooked and served me an amazing lunch a double flip off while smiling at her. The funny part was I can remember her taking a double take at my double flip off but being nice and acting like she did not notice it.
(Upper left) exploring the property (Upper right) an old miner working the land (lower Left) the gold we watched him pan
